When Do I Start Strength Training?

SingRunTing

If you're looking for somewhere to start and you don't have a gym membership (or equipment at home), you can try the "you are your own gym" program. It's body weight exercises and great for beginners who haven't done much strength training before.

There's an app that goes with the program called "bodyweight training" by the author of the book. It walks you through the program, tells you exactly what to do, and shows videos of the movements. It's a paid app ($2.99, i think), but well worth it.

The icon looks like this:


I know heavy lifting is great for you, but it can be intimidating to beginners. This is a really great starting out program.

Nightfall_30

Weight training is good for you at every stage. Others have summarised it very well - weight training will simply help you preserve as much lean mass as possible while you diet and lose weight.

CSARdiver

Loads of great advice above. Never too early to begin weight training and lifting something heavy will not turn your body into some Schwarzenegger clone. Weight lifting is a fantastic complement to anaerobic activity and you will see gains in both activities if you engage in both. I like to start with ~15 mins of aerobic to get my heart rate up and then run through whatever target muscle group o' the day.

gothchiq

Begin working out with weights now. Loose skin is unfortunately unrelated to your muscle tone. It takes a long time to catch up. My doctor told me to be very patient because it could be like 2 years. The weights will make you stronger and healthier, and prevent you from losing so much muscle while you lose the fat.

Sarauk2sf

Echo'ing others that you should not wait to start some kind of resistance training. It mitigates the risk of losing LBM while dieting. You will not get 'bulky' - its very hard to gain an appreciable amount of muscle, especially for women, unless you take steriods and/or testosterone (and even then, you need to work at it).

There are a bunch of other benefits from resistance training, including better bone density and gaining strength.

arykah3luvsya

Thanks everyone!!!

arditarose

Yep...start yesterday.

oh_happy_day

This very instant! You won't regret it!